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Thor Agena A | Discoverer 2

McDonnell Douglas | United States of America
Vandenberg SFB, CA, USA
April 13, 1959, 9:18 p.m.
Status: Launch Successful
Mission:

Discoverer II successfully reached orbit and took photos of Earth. However, when the capsule with the data was ejected in order to re-enter the atmosphere there was a timer malfunction meaning it seperated too early and landed over the North Pole rather than the intended target of Hawaii. The capsule was never recovered.

Polar Orbit
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Juno II | Pioneer 4

Army Ballistic Missile Agency | United States of America
Cape Canaveral SFS, FL, USA
March 3, 1959, 5:10 a.m.
Status: Launch Successful
Mission:

Pioneer 4 was a spin-stabilized spacecraft intended as a lunar probe and successfully performed a fly by of the moon at a height of 58983km. Unfortunately it didn't come close enough to trigger its photoelectric sensor.

Lunar flyby
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Thor Agena A | Discoverer 1

McDonnell Douglas | United States of America
Vandenberg SFB, CA, USA
Feb. 28, 1959, 9:49 p.m.
Status: Launch Failure
Mission:

Discoverer I was the first of a series of satellites part of the CORONA reconnaissance program. This satellite didn't take a camera or film system as it was intended as a test. There were issues communicating with the satellite during flight with only intermittent signals being read.

Polar Orbit
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Vanguard | Vanguard II

Lockheed Martin | United States of America
Cape Canaveral SFS, FL, USA
Feb. 17, 1959, 3:55 p.m.
Status: Launch Successful
Mission:

Vanguard II is an Earth orbiting satellite and the first weather satellite. It was designed to measure cloud-cover distribution over the daylight portion of its orbit for a period of 19 days and to provide information on the density of the atmosphere.

Medium Earth Orbit
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Vostok-L 8K72 | Luna-1

Energia | Russia
Baikonur Cosmodrome, Republic of Kazakhstan
Jan. 2, 1959, 4:41 p.m.
Status: Launch Successful
Mission:

Luna 1 was the first spacecraft to reach the vicinity of the Earth's Moon. Intended to be an impactor it was launched as part of the Soviet Luna programme. Due to an incorrectly timed upper stage burn during launch it missed the Moon.

Lunar Impactor
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Atlas B | SCORE

Convair | United States of America
Cape Canaveral SFS, FL, USA
Dec. 18, 1958, 11:02 p.m.
Status: Launch Successful
Mission:

SCORE or Signal Communications by Orbiting RElay was the world first purpose built communications satellite. It provided a second test of a communications relay system after the first being provided by Pioneer 1.

Low Earth Orbit
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Juno II | Pioneer 3

Army Ballistic Missile Agency | United States of America
Cape Canaveral SFS, FL, USA
Dec. 6, 1958, 5:44 a.m.
Status: Launch Successful
Mission:

Pioneer 3 was a spin-stabilized spacecraft intended as a lunar probe but failed to perform a lunar flyby as planned. Its mission was revised to measure radiation in the outer Van Allen radiation belts.

Lunar flyby
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Vostok-L 8K72 | Luna-1c

Energia | Russia
Baikonur Cosmodrome, Republic of Kazakhstan
Dec. 4, 1958, 6:18 p.m.
Status: Launch Failure
Mission:

Luna E-1 number 3 was a Soviet spacecraft intended to impact the moon but was lost in a launch failure.

Lunar Impactor
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Thor Able I | Pioneer 2

McDonnell Douglas | United States of America
Cape Canaveral SFS, FL, USA
Nov. 8, 1958, 7:30 a.m.
Status: Launch Failure
Mission:

The third pioneer orbiter, pioneer 2 intended to enter lunar orbit but failed to make orbit when the third stage failed to ignite.

Lunar Orbit
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Juno-I | Beacon

Chrysler | United States of America
Cape Canaveral SFS, FL, USA
Oct. 23, 1958, 3:21 a.m.
Status: Launch Failure
Mission:

Beacon 1 was a large inflatable satellite of micro-thin plastic covered with aluminium foil. It was designed to be large so that it was easily visible from Earth.

Low Earth Orbit
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